Chapter 27: A Feast

“Welcome, welcome everyone.” Robins smiled as he looked at the 6 cars in the parking lot.

“What is there to welcome? We all work and live here now.” Philemon retorted back.

A car in America is only a tool of transportation. It is also cheap enough for everyone to own. However, the quality of the car can sometimes be a concern. A second hand car only costs a couple of thousand sometimes even a couple of hundred dollars. For example, the ‘junk’ bumblebee from the first transformers movie cost the MC less than $2000.

Right now, all of his workers have cars, the best belong to Edward and Robins. Of course, there is a difference between the good and the average. A good vehicle can cost hundreds of thousands, but they clearly don’t have the money for these. Thus, their pick-ups are all old Chevys from the 70s and 80s. According to Edward, back then, they only cost around $30,000 and were really easy to afford, especially when you can get a loan from the bank. However, the top tier pick-ups in China, like the Ford F 150 Raptor, only cost thirty to forty thousand here.

Apart from these two pick-ups, everyone else owns personal vehicles. Philemon drives a Honda MPV which is a 7 seater. Easily able to fit in the whole family. Burke, due to being single, owns a Jeep Wrangler. Whereas Harman drives a 6/7 year old Subaru Forester. Finally there is Bell with his cute little Beetle. Although this car is generally intended for girls, it is also the most expensive one here.

Seeing all these cheap cars in front of him, Jiang Hai can’t help but feel deflated. However, they still have their own cars, unlike him who is still car-less. Since everyone is here, then it is time to go on a shopping spree for cars tomorrow. The trailers for the cows are also a must. Apart from these, there is also the need for cattle dogs and new ATVs. It is a good thing he lives near the Boston metropolitan region. As long as he is willing to spend money, there is nothing he can’t buy here.

“Alright, you guys go roast the fish. I’ll take care of the meat so that we don’t all have to eat burnt meat later.” Suddenly, Mrs.Turner took over the grill and kicked out Edward and Robins. Vicki Turner is Edward’s little sister, so of course she is familiar with Robins and the rest. She is also a full-time housewife, hence her food is also very well known locally, but please don’t underestimate her stubbornness, since the consequences are not something anyone can handle.

“You don’t understand, our boss is Chinese. He doesn’t have the habit of eating rare cooked meats. So we need to completely cook them.” Robins replied back, with a hard line attitude since he still has some confidence in his abilities.

“Got it. Go get the fire ready. This is not how you cook well done meat.” Vicki replied with her eyes narrowed. Seeing this expression, Edward smartly left his prep work to her and went to prepare the bonfire.

“What do you mean? Is her cooking that good?” Jiang Hai asked as he came over with 2 bottles of beer. Although he is the boss here, but he still mingles with his workers unlike most estate owners in America. However everyone is either 20-30 years older than him or is like Harman; who just sits there staring into nothingness. Only Bell is someone around the same age who he can hang out with.

“That’s for sure. You won’t understand now, but in a bit you’ll know what true Boston cuisine tastes like.” Bell stated matter-of-factly as he received the beer.

“Oh, then I really need to have a good taste later.” Hearing this, Jiang Hai can’t help but get excited.

While waiting for the fire to be lit and for the beef to be done, he had a chat with Bell about everything, but their main topic still revolved around his service stories. With no need to worry about leaking classified information, Bell let out everything; including those need-to-know topics (1). They talked about his training, the equipment they used and even his specializations.

Within the Delta Force, each team is armed individually. Each team has an assault expert, sniper, explosive expert, communications operative and so on. Although everyone here specialises in a particular field, but they all need to know some other skills, such as the ability to drive anything and everything. Take Bell here for example. He is a veteran sniper but things that fly the in sky, drive on the road, or moving in and on the water, as long as it is a machine and able to be piloted by a single person, then he can operate them (2).

This really turned out to be a very pleasant surprise for Jiang Hai. From now on there will always be someone who can operate all the machines on the farm. Not only that, but he can also accompany Edward during his patrols and keep him safe.

Just as they were getting into some serious topics, the fire is lit on the other side. Their catch today has already been prepped. It doesn’t matter if they were filleted or kept whole, they all ended up on plates sitting next to the grill. This way, who ever wants to eat can cook it themselves. On the opposite side, the first batch of beef is ready. To satisfy his curiosity of Mrs. Turner’s food, Jiang Hai ran up and took a piece. As soon as it entered his mouth, he was left speechless. It is just simply amazing.

This soft texture, but also completely cooked through. A bit of bark outside absorbing the taste of charcoal then you add on the special sauce Mrs. Turner specifically prepared; you get a completely different sensation. This is totally different from how Robins cooked his beef; with the all purpose black pepper. In less than 3 bites, Jiang Hai has already finished this 4oz piece of beef and is reaching out for more.

“So boss, how do you like my wife’s cooking? She not only knows how to cook but also how to plant. On the way here I saw a small garden out back, but that is just too small. We should expand it a bit to be able to accommodate all of us.” Philemon walked over upon seeing Jiang Hai in the act of shoving more beef into his mouth.

“Em, great idea. Mrs. Turner have you ever thought of find a job? Planting vegetables and what not we can talk later. Right now there is only me over here, so it is kind of troublesome to cook only for myself. If it is possible, can I come over to eat instead? Of course there will be appropriate fees involved.” Jiang Hai suggested as he ate.

Hearing Jiang Hai’s word, Philemon’s wife is exhilarated. In fact, the main reason she helped out today is for these words. After all their family has two kids, although there is no need to support the elder one anymore, but there is still the tuition fees for the youngest. Being able to bring in some extra income without doing anything labor intensive is obviously a wise decision.

“Of course that is fine. After all, all I have to do is simply add on a couple more servings.” Hearing Jiang Hai’s request, Philemon’s wife quickly agreed.

The two negotiated and quickly settled on a price of $50 a week. Since Jiang Hai is already providing the raw food, Mrs. Turner is only processing it and can’t really ask for much. Adding this to Philemon’s salary making it $800 a week. A $200 expense every month to have someone cook for you is also within Jiang Hai’s acceptance range resulting in this frustrationless negotiation. There is also no need to put this down on paper since it is only $50 a week. This is literally pennies in Jiang Hai’s point of view.

The feast that followed is one of satisfaction. After the pizza arrived, everyone started to drink booze and eat food open heartedly. Those roasted fish, chicken wings and bits frankly taste delicious. It also has been a long time since Jiang Hai was able to enjoy himself this much with food. Of course the ingredients only played a minor role, while his frame of mind took over the rest.

As the night darkened, everyone continued to party till past 11pm before heading back. Although, Jiang Hai’s body has many strengths, but he still has limitations; especially towards alcohol. Due to him being overly happy today, he drank himself drunk and went straight to bed after. Since the others are hired by him, they don’t have the privilege to escape the task of cleaning up the place.

The next day, what Jiang Hai saw out his window is only a fire pit. Everything else has already been cleaned away. This sight confirmed his worker’s attitude towards him to be great. Soon after came the daily personal clean up process of washing your face, brushing your teeth, and what not. When it was all done and over with, Jiang Hai ran over to Philemon’s house for his breakfast. Generally American breakfast almost always consists of a combination of the following: toast, sausages, eggs, porridge and coffee.

What Mrs.Turner prepared today is toast, eggs and porridge. Although Jiang Hai has no appetite to eat the porridge after seeing it’s appearance, but the toast is another matter altogether. Having finished this simple breakfast, Jiang Hai with Robins and his old pick-up headed towards Winthrop to finish preparations for the ranch. In these preparations, shopping for cars and dogs is definitely priority number one.

Whelp, sent one line of this chapter to a friend of mine and triggered a rant since he was seriously looking at getting a Raptor a few months ago. I’m just a neet who doesn’t even have a license what have I done?!?